Tonia Couch believes she has exactly the right temperament to deal with the raised expectations on her shoulders coming in to the forthcoming World Championships in Kazan.
It has been some year so far for Couch in 2015, claiming four bronze medals on the way to being crowned Diving World Series champion for the 10m platform, while a further two bronze and one silver also arrived in the synchro alongside partner Sarah Barrow.
Such performances mark her out as one to watch in Russia when the diving kicks off on July 24 at the Kazan Arena.
However, the pressure will be on, especially with no British female diver having previously taken world gold in either the individual or synchro competitions.
Couch will be bidding to change that on both fronts, although she insists she won’t be getting carried away.
“It would be incredible to get gold, it’s been a great season so far, especially with winning the World Series” she said.
“But I’ll go into the Worlds as I would any other competition. If I started thinking about going just for gold, then it’s not going to happen. Diving is very much an on the day sport.
“I’m a very relaxed kind of person, I know how to switch off away from diving and away from training. I think it’s a bit of a gift but it’s a very handy one to have.
“I’m really looking forward to the Worlds, we’ve had a nice break recently where I got to go home for a while and see everybody.
“But we’ve been training hard and I feel like I’ve been diving well recently.”
Couch is certainly no stranger to World Championships having appeared in no fewer than five editions stretching back as far as Montreal in 2005.
Her highest finish was fourth in the synchro in 2011, although she insists both synchro – an event she won silver at European and Commonwealth level in last year – and the individual event will be demanding her attention in Russia.
“Both synchro and individual are both very important and I’m just as focused on both,” she added.
“Synchro is so much fun though and it’s great to be able to share that success and the good times with Sarah.
“The whole team is in a really good place at the minute, there’s medals being won everywhere and hopefully we can translate that into more success in Russia.”